Adventures in genealogy

Surname Saturday: DROGOWSKI

Meaning/Origin – The name DROGOWSKI (hear it pronounced in Polish) is derived from the Polish word drogi meaning “dear”. (Source: Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings, Second Edition by William F. Hoffman)

Country of Origin – The surname DROGOWSKI is Polish. According to the World Names Profiler, Poland has the highest frequency per million residents with this name at 4.12 per million. The United States comes in a distant second at .56.

Spelling Variations - Other names derived from the same root include DROGOŃ, DROGOŚ, AND DROGOSZ. (Source: Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings, Second Edition by William F. Hoffman) The feminine version of the surname is DROGOWSKA.

Surname Map- The following map illustrates the frequency of the DROGOWSKI surname in Poland. The name is not very popular – there are only 158 individuals listed with the surname, and they can be found in 36 different counties and cities. The large yellow area in the left center area of the map is where my Drogowski family comes from (Konin area).

My Family – My Drogowski family comes from the town of Wilczyn near Dobrosołowo in Poland. My earliest ancestor so far with this surname is Wojciech Drogowski, who was born in Wilczyn in 1773. The line of descent is as follows: Wojciech (b. 1773, Wilczyn – d. unknown, married Maryanna née Przygodzka) > Jan (b. 14 June 1818, Wilczyn – d. 29 October 1896, Wilczyn, married Konstancja Kubicka) > Stanisława (b. 23 May 1860, Wilczyn – d. 30 December 1918, Dobrosołowo). Stanisława married Wincenty ŚLESIŃSKI on 03 September 1879 in Wilczyn. Their oldest daughter, Wacława Ślesiński (b. 14 Aug 1885, Dobrosołowo, Poland – d. 20 May 1956, Philadelphia, PA, USA), is my great-grandmother. She immigrated to the United States in 1903 following her husband, Jozef ZAWODNY.

My Research Challenges- I found the 1818 birth record of Jan DROGOWSKI earlier this year when I visited the FHL in Salt Lake City. I am very fortunate that the Catholic church records for the town of Wilczyn are microfilmed beginning in 1750. From Jan’s birth record, I learned that his father Wojciech was 45 years old and from Wilczyn. Therefore, I should be able to locate Wojciech’s birth around 1773 in the Wilczyn records and go back one more generation! The Wilczyn films are at the top of my genea-to-do list.

Other Drogowski Researchers – Paul Kankula has a web site with research on his DROGOWSKI great-grandparents. Some of the Drogowski families on his “Unknown Individuals” page were born in Wilczyn and immigrated to Pittsburgh, PA. I will have to investigate to see if this Drogowski family are cousins to my Drogowski family.